Democratic, Independent and Republican senators who still care about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court must filibuster Trump's Gorsuch nomination.

MADISON - Today, right now, our democracy is facing a devastating threat. And it's not only Russia.

Republicans are attempting to complete the cynical political takeover of the Supreme Court that they launched last year when they failed to even give a hearing to Judge Merrick Garland.

The legitimacy of the Supreme Court has already taken a severe blow because of the GOP's political games, but if Judge Gorsuch is confirmed, it would lock in a dangerous precedent from which the legitimacy of our highest court may not recover.

The Senate is the only entity now able to prevent this precedent and its resulting slippery slope, but only if senators are willing to fight. Democratic and Independent senators, and any Republicans who still care about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, must filibuster Gorsuch's nomination.

The legitimacy of the Supreme Court is one of the four key pillars of our country's democracy that is under threat and must be protected. The others are elections determined by voters instead of money, the unrestricted right and access to vote, and protecting the power of the popular vote.

This time, the GOP took the Supreme Court hostage in the last year of a president's term; next it will be the year before midterm elections. It won't be long before it extends to the whole two-year presidential campaign, amounting to three years of any presidential term where a Supreme Court seat cannot be filled.

I have always considered the Supreme Court our country's safety valve. When everything else fails, the Court is there to protect the Constitution and protect our civil rights.

But today, the most important safety valve is the U.S. Senate, specifically those senators with the conviction to fight for the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.

The GOP's judicial coup spat in the face of our Constitution, and a nomination that locks that in as a precedent cannot be accepted under any circumstances. It is not hypocritical to try to right this wrong. It would be unconstitutional not to.